


The Look of Love

by Ilearnedtoreadforthis



Series: STB Bingo [5]
Category: Marvel Cinematic Universe
Genre: Alpha Steve Rogers, Alpha/Beta/Omega Dynamics, Getting Together, Implied Mpreg, Kid Peter Parker, M/M, Magic, Omega Tony Stark, Or Is It?, Peter Parker is Tony Stark's Biological Child, Time Travel
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-01-17
Updated: 2021-01-17
Packaged: 2021-03-15 22:21:37
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,121
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28820646
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Ilearnedtoreadforthis/pseuds/Ilearnedtoreadforthis
Summary: The last thing Tony remembered was standing in the communal kitchen next to Steve, reaching for a cup of coffee, when a being had materialized on the other side of the room. The entity had appeared to be a young woman, and she had made eye contact with both Tony and Steve, a smile ever present on her face and warmth in her eyes. The intruder had said nothing when Steve and Tony had attempted to communicate, but rather had held out her hand, which contained a golden ball floating above her palm. Tony had been immediately intrigued by the mechanical looking sphere and had reached for it. He could vaguely remember Steve attempting to stop him from reaching for the object by placing his hand on his shoulder and pulling him backwards, but Tony had been drawn to the ball and could not resist it. The moment the ball had made contact with the palm of Tony’s hand, there had been a flash of light and then everything had gone black.
Relationships: Steve Rogers/Tony Stark
Series: STB Bingo [5]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2039661
Comments: 4
Kudos: 222
Collections: STB Bingo: Round One





	The Look of Love

**Author's Note:**

> Written for the free space of STB Bingo.

Tony felt the blood pound in his head as he laid still, keeping his eyes shut. He did a quick assessment of his body and nothing hurt, but his heart was racing. He could hear beeping in the distance, but it was not the hospital monitors he would have expected, rather something like an alarm clock buzzing in the distance. Tony opened his eyes slowly, surprised at the sight of his own bedroom.

The last thing Tony remembered was standing in the communal kitchen next to Steve, reaching for a cup of coffee, when a being had materialized on the other side of the room. The entity had appeared to be a young woman, and she had made eye contact with both Tony and Steve, a smile ever present on her face and warmth in her eyes. The intruder had said nothing when Steve and Tony had attempted to communicate, but rather had held out her hand, which contained a golden ball floating above her palm. Tony had been immediately intrigued by the mechanical looking sphere and had reached for it. He could vaguely remember Steve attempting to stop him from reaching for the object by placing his hand on his shoulder and pulling him backwards, but Tony had been drawn to the ball and could not resist it. The moment the ball had made contact with the palm of Tony’s hand, there had been a flash of light and then everything had gone black.

Tony propped himself up on his elbows and looked to his left to find the source of the alarm, only to find a very sleepy, half naked Steve Rogers starting to wake up next to him. Steve’s eyes opened and focused on Tony. A moment of confusion crossed Steve’s face and just as it appeared that he was about to speak, Steve hesitated and remained silent. His brow unfurrowed, and Steve’s face morphed almost instantly - his face softened and his lips turned upwards into a beaming smile. 

“Good morning, sweetheart,” Steve reached up and stroked Tony’s arm then quickly rolled over to shut the alarm on his phone off. 

_Sweetheart_? Tony took a deep breath. He didn't realize how much a simple endearment from Steve could affect him. He and Steve had been dancing around each other for months, but neither of them seemed to have the courage to take it to the next step. Tony decided that he would rather have Steve in his life as a friend than not at all if things didn't work out.

Tony began to search his mind for any explanation as to what happened between the woman appearing in their kitchen and this moment, but nothing came to him. Was he dreaming? Was he in an alternate timeline? Or could he not actually remember what events led him to be sharing a bed with Steve?

“Are you alright?” Steve rolled to his side and put his hand on Tony’s. “Your smell is a little off.” 

Tony decided that it would be best to play along with whatever world he had found himself in until he could evaluate his position. And since this version of Steve seemed to find it perfectly normal to wake up next to Tony, it was unfortunately not _his_ Steve.

“Hangover?” Tony shrugged his shoulders, taking an educated guess that maybe a drunken stupor was responsible for the strange turn of events.

Steve gave him a sideways glance, “Funny. Seeing how you haven’t had a drink in what - five years?” 

Tony could feel his pulse begin to quicken, trying to think of how to respond to Steve when Steve pulled Tony down to lay back on the bed and cupped Tony’s face, rubbing his thumb over his jawline.

“Are you nervous?” Steve asked.

“Nervous?” 

“You know, this is going to be your first heat since Peter was born and I know you’ve been -” Steve rubbed up and down Tony's arm. “Well, a little self conscious about the baby weight.”

 _Baby?_ His mind was in overdrive. Tony reached under the sheet and rubbed his hand over his stomach. Sure enough, his normally toned stomach had a slight paunch.

"And I wish you wouldn't be," Steve continued. "I love everything about you." Steve tightened his hold on Tony's waist, leaned in and whispered into Tony's ear, "And you are more beautiful now than you ever have been."

Steve slid down to kiss Tony's neck. When Steve's lips hovered over Tony's bonding gland and then circled it with his tongue, a moan inadvertently escaped Tony's lips.

"Steve," Tony arched into him. Never before had he experienced the depth of feeling that an active bond brought, and it caught Tony off guard. He couldn't imagine what it would be like to experience a direct bite. All the anxiety of trying to figure out _where_ or _when_ he was, was pushed aside and taken over by pure bliss.

"Hmmm," Steve hummed in Tony's ear again. "That's better. You smell like honey just before your heat." Steve pulled back to look Tony in the eye. "Let me get Peter so you can nurse him, and then I can take care of _you_."

Steve winked at him and broke into a large grin, "Be right back."

Dumbfounded, Tony watched Steve get up to leave the room. He inhaled quickly, trying to remember how to breathe. This definitely had to be a dream, Tony decided, as Steve's vanilla scent wafted through the air in his wake - nothing could possibly feel this intense in the real world.

As Steve exited, Tony let his eyes search the room and without a doubt, this was his penthouse suite at Stark Tower. The furniture was the same - the wall colors, the carpet, all the same, but yet the room _felt_ different, warmer somehow.

Tony stood up and grabbed the robe that was hanging on the back of a chair and slowly started walking the perimeter of the room, looking at all the personal touches that were normally foreign to his room, touches that spoke of Steve.

There were a few hand drawn pictures adorning the walls and a half dozen photographs scattered about the room. The drawings were cityscapes of various places around New York- a skyline view from the penthouse, a sketch of the statue that had been erected by the city depicting all the Avengers, and an ink sketch of the Brooklyn bridge. The fourth sketch had obviously never been meant to be displayed like this. Its frayed edge along the top of the sheet suggested that it had been ripped from a sketch pad and then framed. It was a simple drawing of Tony, lying naked on a couch, replicating the infamous scene from Titanic. The portrait was definitely drawn with loving hands - and somehow Steve had managed to even make his scars look alluring. 

The photographs that peppered the room gave tribute to a happy and loving relationship not only between Tony and Steve, but with the entire team. And when Tony came across their wedding photo, he noticed for the first time the simple gold band that adorned his left hand and his heart began to flutter. And when he moves to the next photo of Steve leaning over him while Tony is in a hospital bed holding their newborn son, his heart clenches. He has a son. _They_ have a son.

But it was the next photograph that made his heart stop. The photo was simple - a snapshot of Steve that Tony took a few months ago in his own timeline. Tony had been meeting Steve for lunch in Times Square when Tony had spotted Steve down the block. The expression on Steve's face took Tony's breath away. And even though the emotion was not directed at Tony, but rather at whatever caught Steve's attention in the distance, Tony snapped a picture to preserve the moment. And he knew this picture so very well. He couldn't remember a day since he snapped that photo that he hadn't caught himself staring at it. He was just about to pick up the picture when Steve entered the room carrying Peter.

"Nat already bathed him so he will be ready for a nap once he eats," Steve set Peter in Tony's arms. "So you better eat up little man," Steve gently poked Peter in the belly, making him squirm with laughter. "Aunt Nat is waiting for you."

The little giggles that erupted from Peter filled Tony with pure joy. Tony looked down at the baby blue eyes that were now staring back at him, "He's so beautiful."

"Just like you," Steve kissed Tony on the cheek, "I'm going to take a quick shower while you feed Peter, okay?"

Tony nodded, not able to take his eyes off the bundle in his arm when Steve left the room. From the chubby little cheeks to the soft brown hair on Peter's head, Tony was completely in love.

He sat in the chair, allowing this robe to fall open, "Be patient with me. I may look like your daddy, but this is all new to me." 

Tony laughed at himself, lifting Peter to his nipple. Sure enough, Peter knew just what to do and quickly latched on to eat. 

"Well, that wasn’t so bad - ouch! A little gentler with those teeth," Tony cooed at Peter.

It took a few minutes for Tony to become accustomed to the sensation of Peter nursing to allow Tony to relax and return his thoughts to his dilemma.

"So tell me, my beautiful boy, where am I?" Tony became pensive. "This isn't my body, so I am going to rule out alternate timeline or time travel since I seemed to have popped into this Tony's head, not actually switching bodies or there being two of us, that's how that works, right?" He looked at Peter as if he had the answers, but Peter continued to eat, staring up at Tony as if Tony hung the moon. "So where does that leave us? Because if this is a dream, it's the most vivid dream I have ever had and I'm not sure I want to wake up."

As Peter finished eating, Tony watched as his Peter’s eyelids started to get heavy. But when Steve entered the room, with only a towel wrapped around his waist, Tony looked up from his son for the first time since he had been placed in his arms and his mouth went dry. Best. Dream. Ever.

Steve walked up to Tony. “Somebody looks ready for his nap now. Here, let me take him back to Nat," Steve reached down and scooped up a yawning Peter. "And don't worry, she's letting JARVIS monitor her apartment while she has Peter. He'll let us know if there's anything wrong."

Tony just nodded. He was at a loss for words at the sight in front of him. His _husband_ holding _their son._

"Be right back.”

Tony stared at the door, feeling a little emptier now that he was alone again, until he remembered the photo of Steve he had been looking at. He walked back over to it and picked it up. He had never shown this picture to anyone, yet here it was prominently displayed in his room.

"It was always you," Steve as he walked back in the room and up to Tony's side. Steve curled his arm around Tony's waist, "I knew it then," Steve nodded towards the photo, "And then when you showed this picture to me for the first time, I knew I couldn't hide it from you any longer. How could I? It's written all over my face."

What was always him? Hide what? Tony was about to ask what he had meant when Steve pulled him in tightly and pressed his lips to Tony's. Steve's hands cupped Tony's face, letting his thumbs stroke Tony's cheeks. Steve's tongue almost immediately sought entry into Tony's mouth, deepening the passionate kiss. And when Tony let himself give into it to enjoy the moment, everything went black once again.

Tony's head was pounding and his heart was racing once again. But this time there was no beeping. Tony took a deep breath and started to open his eyes.

"Tony?" Steve softly called his name.

Tony's eyebrows furrowed as he tried to focus on Steve's voice, "Steve?" Tony slowly opened his eyes, finding himself laying on the couch.

Steve sat on the edge of the sofa next to him, his face fraught with worry, "How do you feel?"

Dream or reality? Tony couldn't tell. His eyes searched the room for clues, when he remembered - he felt the ring finger of his left hand and found nothing and his heart sank. How could he be heartbroken over a dream?

Tony brought his attention back to Steve, "What happened?"

"What do you remember?"

 _From the dream? Everything_ , Tony thought.

Tony shook his head, "A woman and an orb -"

"The woman was actually Loki. He was standing over us when I regained consciousness." 

Tony brow furrowed, waiting for Steve to finish his explanation.

"I was only out for a minute. I - uh," Steve stuttered, "I guess because I didn't directly touch the orb, just your shoulder when you touched it, but you've been out for about an hour."

An hour? That's about how long he had spent with dream Steve and Peter. A dream in real time, that's interesting. "But why? What was his reason?"

Steve shrugged his shoulders, "He said he wanted to show you something - a gift." Steve looked questionly at Tony, "What happened while you were out?"

"Just a dream," Tony said fondly. "The most vivid dream I've ever had."

Steve looked down and softly replied, "Do you mean like you were actually living it?"

Tony looked at Steve in surprise, "You too?"

Steve nodded and looked Tony in the eyes. "I remember that I was in bed with an alarm going off. So I open my eyes and I, uh-," Steve avoided eye contact with Tony.

"You woke up next to me?" Tony thought back to the momentary look of confusion on Steve's face when they first laid eyes on each other in his bedroom.

Steve's head jerked up and then he nodded again, "Yeah. I only saw you for a few seconds and then I was back here next to you in the kitchen - then I carried you in here."

“I remember you tried to stop me from taking the orb, but it was too late. And when we broke contact, you returned here. So it wasn't a dream." Tony surmised, "But, I just don't see what the point of it all was.” 

Tony pulled himself up into a sitting position. Why would Loki show him these things? Was he taunting him with things he couldn't have or truly offering him a gift of knowing what could be?

Steve snapped his fingers, "He said something about a picture being worth a thousand words right before he left."

Pictures? He saw a lot of pictures in his vision, but which one was Loki referring to? The drawings? The photos? Tony started to catalogue it all in his head. Tony let out a slight chuckle and started nodding to himself when his mind reached the last picture he saw before returning here.

"Figure it out?" Steve looked hopefully at Tony.

Tony looked to the side with a half grin and nodded slowly. It was the one photo he was drawn back to when he was there - the same photo he had stared at everyday here - the same photo that the Steve of his dream confessed that 'it was written all over his face'. But only Steve himself would know what the thousand words that particular picture was worth, that is if Loki were to be trusted. 

Tony decided to put it all on the table. What if there was a possibility of that vision becoming a reality? What if he and Steve had a chance to have a life as more than just friends. A chance to have a family. A chance to have Peter. It was a chance he had to take.

"I think so, um," Tony took a deep breath and dug his phone out of his pocket. "Remember a month or so ago when we met for lunch in Times Square?"

"Yeah," Steve answered. "At that diner."

Tony punched a few buttons on his phone, "So, I saw you before you saw me and, um, you just had this look on your face - so I snapped a picture of you." Tony turned the phone to show Steve, "This picture. In my dream, you told me when I showed this to you," Tony nodded at the phone, "You knew that you couldn't hide it from me any longer. That it was written all over your face. Does that mean something to you?"

It took a moment, but Tony watched as a blush tinted Steve's cheeks and a small smile crept onto his face. Steve nodded as Tony's heart pounded.

"What, um -, what do you think is written on my face?" Steve cocked his head. 

"I don't know if I can put a label on it. But whatever you were looking at made you so full of happiness." Tony looked down saying to himself, _I find myself wishing that you would look at me like that someday._

Steve smiled _that_ smile at Tony and put his finger under Tony's chin to lift his face in Steve's direction. "I remember that day - I remember waiting for you in front of that diner, looking around at how much everything has changed, all the flashiness of it all. At least a dozen different scenes all being broadcast at once.

"But one screen - one screen caught my eye. The one I'm looking at in this picture. You see, someone must have caught you on video walking in Times Square and it was being broadcast on that screen.

"I was looking at you on that screen - knowing you were coming to me - and I realized how much you've come to mean to me.” Steve moved his hand to Tony's cheek, "And thinking that I might be falling for my best friend."

Tony smiled, bursting inside thinking of the vision that had the potential to come to fruition. Loki had truly given him a gift.

"Maybe we could go out to dinner tonight, then a few drinks." Tony paused, remembering something else from Loki's vision, "Scratch that, no drinks - I think it's time to stop that. Just dinner, pleasant conversation? Yeah? I have a lot to tell you."

Tony put his hand on Steve's, and a wicked grin crossed his face, " Have you ever seen Titanic?"


End file.
